Aaron Rupar knows a good gotcha clip when he sees one and he never lets reality get in the way. Today he has sent another clip echoing around social media and, once again, his take on it is clearly misleading. Rupar’s description (2nd clip below) reads, “Ted Cruz defends Nazi salutes at school board meetings.”

Ted Cruz defends Nazi salutes at school board meetings pic.twitter.com/9FJHJ97rFE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2021

Naturally, that got thousands of likes and retweets from people who hate Ted Cruz including one elected official who claimed he was “casually defending Nazis.”

Ted Cruz just casually defending Nazis in a congressional hearing 🤦🏽‍♀️ https://t.co/MaAVIcnIhC

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 27, 2021

Dear lord, I think she really believes it. And so do a lot of other people.

In the last few days San Antonio and Austin have experienced anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi demonstrations against Jewish communities.

Words like these from a United States Senator only embolden similar actions. https://t.co/VGNKFtKzU9

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) October 27, 2021

Ted Cruz goose-steps up to the plate for Nazis. https://t.co/KTWqzxTjW6

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) October 27, 2021

He’s actually defending Nazi stuff. What a joke. https://t.co/gRdLOCsrk2

— Michael Bracamontes (@BrockItTalkIt) October 27, 2021

Here’s what Cruz said, “My god! A parent did a Nazi salute at a school board because he thought the policies were oppressive. General Garland is doing a Nazi salute at an elected official, is that protected by the First Amendment?” And at the end of the clip, AG Garland agreed: “Yes it is.” So Rupar could have written “AG Garland defends Nazi salutes at school board meetings” but that wouldn’t have gotten thousands of likes from his lefty followers. Rupar knows his audience.

As did the Attorney General of the United States. But you're dishonest. https://t.co/brVtAGxzgb

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 27, 2021

To their credit, even some people who aren’t Ted Cruz fans pointed out that, in the context of parents speaking to school boards, Sen. Cruz was correct:

Go after Ted Cruz all you want, he usually deserves it, but he’s correct here. A parent giving the Nazi salute at a school board meeting is protected speech. Under our First Amendment. Merrick Garland agrees with him. Cruz isn’t defending Nazis. He’s defending free speech. https://t.co/FNZeNrGBNs

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 27, 2021

I really, really hate to say this—but the point Ted Cruz is making is sound: this is definitely protected speech. He’s not defending the speech; he’s not saying he’d salute or that people should—he’s saying it shouldn’t be investigated or prosecuted. That’s just the Constitution. https://t.co/xGB4CVyFgw

— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) October 27, 2021

we can all see the clip. Cruz is saying the Nazi salute, which is done in protest of school board officials and not as a sign of fidelity to national socialism, is first amendment protected speech. https://t.co/zuLJiqTdWx

— Eli Lake (@EliLake) October 27, 2021

And that’s the key point. If Ted Cruz were actually defending Nazis or Nazism, that would be very worrisome indeed. But in this case the worked-up parent was using the salute to mock someone else as a Nazi.

No. He defended a parent COMPARING SCHOOLBOARD MEMBERS TO NAZIS with a satirical salute.
You know, the kind of board members who covered up a child-rape. https://t.co/sPJYa42HyQ

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) October 27, 2021

Now I’m willing to grant that calling someone a Nazis is pretty much the lowest form of argument. There’s a reason the Godwin’s Law is one of the oldest lessons drawn from the internet age and seeing that spill out into the real world isn’t an improvement.

But don’t miss the irony in all of this even if Rupar’s followers managed to do so. Thousands of people are using this particular clip to call Ted Cruz a Nazi. All of the ones who liked and RT’d the suggestion that he was defending Nazis are doing exactly what the parent at the school board was doing, i.e. mouthing off to elected officials. And they are protected in doing so by the same First Amendment right Ted Cruz was actually defending in this clip.

In other words, Aaron Rupar accidentally proved Ted Cruz was right.

Finally, you might have noticed that Rupar didn’t ever say Cruz (or Garland) were wrong about the First Amendment. He probably knows better than to claim that. So instead he just leaves it to his followers to jump to the wrong conclusion. Most of them don’t care about whether Cruz is right or wrong, they care about dunking on Ted Cruz and calling him a Nazi. They’re wrong of course but in America they still have the right to say it.

Update: Here’s the full exchange. You can really see why the left wants to change the subject about this.

Sen. @TedCruz just broke AG Garland 🔥🔥🔥

Watch. pic.twitter.com/dELwBfshXI

— Danny De Urbina (@dannydeurbina) October 27, 2021